10 common PLAB 2 mistakes and how to avoid them

Across thousands of practice consultations, the same avoidable mistakes come up again and again. None of them is hard to fix once you are aware of it. Work through this list, and check yourself against it in your practice.

The ten mistakes

• Diving into closed questions too early and missing the bigger picture.
• Forgetting to explore the patient’s ideas, concerns and expectations.
• Using medical jargon the patient cannot follow.
• Poor time management — running out of time before reaching a plan.
• Failing to safety-net clearly at the end of the consultation.
• Not signposting, so the consultation feels disorganised.
• Talking at the patient rather than sharing decisions with them.
• Ignoring obvious emotional cues from the patient or relative.
• Over-investigating instead of committing to a sensible plan.
• Letting a difficult station rattle you into the next one.

How to train them out

The fix for almost all of these is structured, repeated practice with feedback. When you review each consultation against the three PLAB 2 domains, these habits become visible — and once they are visible, they are easy to correct. Pick the one or two that show up most in your feedback and target them deliberately in your next few sessions.

ZWIP’s structured feedback flags exactly these patterns after each practice station, so you can catch and fix them long before exam day. Practise often, review honestly, and these mistakes will quietly disappear from your consultations.